What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word “Skills”?
For the vast majority, answer will be the ability to do something that they are good at.
If you are hunting for a job, then skills are something that help you put your best talents forward. There a wide variety of skills for a resume that you can include. But highlighting a bunch of unspecific skills is nothing but a waste of space and a matter of annoyance to the recruiters. Therefore, you need to be more selective about how many skills should you list on a resume, how to describe them and where to list them. This will make your resume stand out.
Given below are some guidelines to help you get a clear understanding:-
There are mainly two types of skills sets on a resume, i.e. hard skills and soft skills. These skills are used to encompass various types of social and technical abilities necessary for the job. So, it is important for you to understand the difference between the two.
Hard skills are measurable or quantifiable skills like technical abilities that you can easily develop through training. For example, computer programming, typing, SEO, graphics designing, copy-writing, accounting, bookkeeping, data analysis, project management, foreign languages, etc.
Soft skills (also called people skills) are interpersonal or social abilities that cannot be quantified, but are transferable. These skills show how you will interact, engage and cope with the new work environment. For example, if you are a receptionist, effective communication, and relationship building skills would fit this bill. Additional soft skills could be: decision-making, time management, organizational, adaptability and flexibility, self-motivated, problem solving, critical thinking, leadership, etc.
Now, the question is which one of these is the best skill set to include in your resume? One way to find it is by understanding employer’s requirements. For technical jobs, hard skills are must to include. If soft skills need to be included, ensure that they corroborate with appropriate examples in the work section of your resume. Most importantly, know what the employers prefer since organizations find it easy to provide hard skills training because they feel that soft skills are something that candidates have to develop or learn on their own.
So which skills are the best to choose?
You don't need to get confused as to which one of the skill set is the best. The common solution recommended by various resume experts in this case is to use a balanced approach. This means that the key to attract potential employers towards your resume is to make sure that you use both of these skills equally.
There are some additional skills to put in your resume skill section that include transferable, adaptive and job-specific skills. If you are a career changer, then you definitely have to make more efforts to console employers that why you are the best fit for the job. This is because your resume then doesn't contain another most important part, which is, work experience relevant to the job you have applied. In this case, you make use of the skills that you have acquired from your previous job(s) that can be transferred to the new one. This is why these skills are called transferable skills as you can use them from one job to another. e.g.:- communication, problem-solving, decision-making, leadership, etc.
Adaptive skills are skills that cannot be proven by experience as they determine your personality traits, work style such as reliability, honesty, ability to get along with colleagues, etc. On the other hand, job-specific employment skills are the ones that are directly relevant to the applied job like a payroll clerk should have payroll, accounting and financial skills. Clearly, among these skills, transferable and job-related skills are the most desirable ones for your CV.
What skills to include in resume and how to include them?
Some key skills for resume or CV that almost every employer wants to see are:-
You should also be aware of the list of skills that employers absolutely don't want in your resume. Those are:
Now that you have identified which employability skills are mostly preferred, it's time for you to make a list of the skills and consider the best way of presenting them.
How many skills to put on a resume?
Another important question that might come in your mind while writing skills is how many skills should you list on a resume. The number of skills written in a resume skill section can change according to employer’s requirements as well as candidate’s experience. For example, if you are a recent graduate or a career changer, then it is necessary to focus on your skills so that employer gets a brief idea about your capabilities of fulfilling specific job responsibilities. Whereas for experienced candidates, writing lengthy skills section is not important as employers would be keen to know their work experience. So, basically, it is important to keep in mind that long list of skills section doesn’t make the resume attractive. Mostly, employers have to scan lots of resumes, so there are very fewer chances that they are going to read all. Try to limit the skills to maximum 8 bullet points that go with the job.
To summarize, the most important thing to remember is to select and represent your resume skills clearly and concisely as well as relevant to the job position you are applying for.
You can also refer "How Many Areas of Interest a Person Should Include in a Resume"